Student wounded in shooting at Atlanta middle school

Authorities say a 14-year-old student was wounded after being shot in the back of the neck at an Atlanta middle school.

Authorities say a suspect fired multiple gun shots in the courtyard of Price Middle School before an armed officer was able to get the gun away. Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos says the shooting was not random.

MyFoxAtlanta.com reports the wounded student, identified by family members as Telvis Douglas, was alert and conscious before he was taken to the hospital. The student was taken to Grady Hospital and was released Thursday night.

A teacher suffered minor cuts and bruises but was treated on the scene.

Police say a suspect, tentatively identified as a male student, has been taken into custody. Campos said investigators are not certain what happened before the shooting, but believe something occurred between the two people involved.

Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said the school does have metal detectors.

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"The obvious question is how did this get past a metal detector?" Davis asked about the gun. "That's something we do not know yet."

The armed resource officer who took the gun away was off-duty and at the school, but police didn't release many details on him or whether he is regularly at Price.

The school was placed on lockdown and students were kept inside for hours as their parents waited anxiously outside. Price Middle School is located south of Atlanta.

Several school buses loaded with children pulled away from the school hours after the shooting and stopped in front of a church about a half-block away. Parents tried boarding the buses. Police who initially tried to stop the parents, relented and screamed, "Let them off!" about the students.

Superintendent Davis sympathized with concerned parents who complained that it took too long for students to be released from the building. He said emergency procedures were followed according to protocol and school district officials would meet Friday to review their response. Calls to the school district were not immediately returned.

Mayor Kasim Reed condemned gun violence in a statement shortly after the shooting and said counselors were at the school to meet with students, faculty and family members.

"Gun violence in and around our schools is simply unconscionable and must end," Reed said. "Too many young people are being harmed, and too many families are suffering from unimaginable and unnecessary grief."